What was your first bike?

[Obliviontoad]

First, '72 CB350, Second, 2010 SHadow RS 750, Third, some retro bike nobody ever seems to know anything about...

[flynrider]

It's amazing how product categories have changed over the years. What Yamaha called a "Special" back then would probably be considered a "standard" today. The Specials (especially the blacked-out and gold "Midnight Special") were considered to be the daring cutting edge of cruiserdom.

Yep. In the days before cruisers were their own category, Japan put out these Cruiser-ish versions of the standard UJM. Custom (Honda), Special (Yamaha), LTD (Kawasaki) and Suzuki just used the suffix "L". I often thought of these as "universal" as the UJM. Take a UJM, add stepped seat, buckhorn bars, cast wheels and shorty megaphone pipes. They all did it about the same way.

I must admit that I liked the looks, compared to the standard models. The only thing I never got used to were the crazy handlebars. They positioned your hands about 90 degrees from normal bars, and much closer together. Such was the price of owning the "cool" version.

[use2b_imp]

cooldrum if you ever decide to sell the 305 Scrambler talk to me ....... looking for one.
I went through bikes fast as a kid [ worked hard at many jobs ] and also had a hodaka combat wombat for the clay pits around my home but purchased a Bridgestone 100 from a friend and loved that bike. It was the fastest 100 around with rotary valve engine , rotary transmission and they set two new land speed records at Bonneville .
got lucky and then bought a Bridgestone 350cc with Six speeds, 40 HP, oil injection, dual rotary valves with quick-cooling aluminum alloy cylinders with low friction chromed steel bores . always wanted to race a RD350 but never got the chance . the carbs were enclosed on the engine sides for direct flow straight into the rotary valves .

[peterbaron]

cooldrum if you ever decide to sell the 305 Scrambler talk to me ....... looking for one.
I went through bikes fast as a kid [ worked hard at many jobs ] and also had a hodaka combat wombat for the clay pits around my home but purchased a Bridgestone 100 from a friend and loved that bike. It was the fastest 100 around with rotary valve engine , rotary transmission and they set two new land speed records at Bonneville .
got lucky and then bought a Bridgestone 350cc with Six speeds, 40 HP, oil injection, dual rotary valves with quick-cooling aluminum alloy cylinders with low friction chromed steel bores . always wanted to race a RD350 but never got the chance . the carbs were enclosed on the engine sides for direct flow straight into the rotary valves .

NICE pic...my friend had his racing Yam RD 250cc, 2 stroke, twin with rotary valve and reed valve + ports done ++ = awesome performance those days...was doing around 200 km/h if I remember good..

[LongRanger_imp]

use2be, could you upshift the rotary transmission on that 100 from 4th (or 5th) back to 1st by accident?

[suhawk305]

use2be, I lived near a Bridgestone dealer, I remembered when the 350 GTR came out and I wanted one so bad. Unfortunately, by the time I could afford one, Bridgestone was history.

[use2b_imp]

use2be, could you upshift the rotary transmission on that 100 from 4th (or 5th) back to 1st by accident?

No - you would hit neutral .... I never had a problem .
I liked the transmission a lot and it was all gears down then down again for neutral at a stop light and down again to 1st although you could downshift by clicking up. they were wonderful bikes and the hard chromed cylinders stayed shinny as the bumper on a new car back then i was told they could not be bored out but only re-ringed.
did take a full 1000 miles for break in because of the chrome but they were really fast , smooth bikes.

also the tanks were all Chrome and when the 100 got scratched up on top i used paint remover and had an all chrome tank

[MinneapolisCB_imp]

My first bike was a 2008 Buell 1125R. I had just started dating a gal with over 30 years of riding experience, but was shopping on my own. When I told her what I purchased, she told me later that her reaction was, “This guy will either quickly splatter himself or has big enough cajones to be a real good time. I better stick around to find out.” We are married now.

I obviously survived, but it was a poor choice for a beginner.


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[Banned_imp]

My first bike was a 2008 Buell 1125R. I had just started dating a gal with over 30 years of riding experience, but was shopping on my own. When I told her what I purchased, she told me later that her reaction was, “This guy will either quickly splatter himself or has big enough cajones to be a real good time. I better stick around to find out.” We are married now.

I obviously survived, but it was a poor choice for a beginner.


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That is one of the worst first bike decisions I have ever heard. Glad you survived.

[MinneapolisCB_imp]

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That is one of the worst first bike decisions I have ever heard.
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I could not agree more. I thankfully had a healthy fear of the bike, so I barely twisted the throttle until I built up some confidence.



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